Oyster Cornbread Stuffing
Ingredients
- 12 fresh oysters
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 1 Granny Smith apples, diced
- 4 cups crouton-shaped dry bread
- 2 cups cornbread, crumbled
- 1 tbsp parsley
- 1 tsp fresh or ½ tsp dried thyme
- pinch of salt
- 3-5 tbsp unsalted butter, divided
- ½ to 1 cup un-oaked white wine (suggestion: chardonnay)
Special Equipment
- 8" x 8" glass baking dish
- foil
How-to
Prepare the Vegetables
- Dice onions, celery, carrots and apples and set aside
- In a bowl mix croutons and cornbread
- Add the onion, apples, parsley and thyme
Make the Juice
- Melt 2 tbsp unsalted butter in skillet on medium-high heat
- Saute onion, carrots and celery until translucent
- Remove from heat and transfer vegetables to bowl
- In the same pan, melt 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- Add ½ to 1 cup un-oaked white wine and bring to full simmer
Poach the Oysters
- Check raw oysters carefully for pieces of shell
- Pour oysters in their "liquor" into hot butter-wine juice and bring to a boil
- Stir in a pinch of salt
- Poach oysters for 2 minutes or until they curl up
- Remove oysters and reduce the butter-wine-oyster juice by ½ to make a golden gravy
Assemble & Bake the Oyster Cornbread Stuffing
- Pre-heat oven to 350°
- Pour juice over the dry ingredients
- Add sauteed vegetables
- Add the oysters
- Toss the stuffing, careful not to break the oysters
- Add water or stock/broth if stuffing seems dry
- Pack stuffing lightly into baking dish
- Cover top with foil and press around top of stuffing
- Bake for 45 minutes
You can put the stuffing in the oven at whatever temperature other dishes are baking -- just keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn